Romans 16:1-16--Personal Greetings

Personal Greetings
16 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, 2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.

​3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. 5 Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. 6 Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. 7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. 8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. 9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. 10 Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. 11 Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. 12 Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. 13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. 14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. 15 Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. 16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

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This section has a lot of names that you may not be familiar with and some that you may be familiar with.  For those that you can find in other places in the Bible, I encourage you to read a little bit more about them and how these people assisted Paul in his ministry.  As I think I mentioned a few days ago, Paul did not work alone and had as many as 70 people helping him in various ways--some of them working with him at a local level, others at a regional level, others at an international level, and a few that worked very closely with him to make sure that he took care of himself and to attend to him when he was in prison.  Sometimes we even need this last group of people when we want to pour ourselves so much into our ministry that God gives us a few people in our lives to make sure that we stay faithful to His calling, but that we also take care of ourselves so that we are prepared for whatever God calls us to next.

We see first the Paul tells them to welcome Phoebe (she probably was carrying the letter to them) and that she was a member of a "sister church."  Apparently she and her church had needs that Paul wanted to church in Rome to help with, and Paul let them know that this woman, probably a Gentile businesswoman, was someone who had supported Paul and many others in the past, probably making the efforts of Paul and his team possible.  Now that she is in some trouble, Paul is asking for the Church to help support her.

We definitely recognize the names of Priscilla and Aquilla--they helped disciple Paul after his conversion and taught him how to be a tentmaker to support himself and his ministry.  They have partnered with Paul and his ministry to the Gentiles now and appear to have moved to Rome to help lead that congregation--no wonder Paul had no doubt that they had been taught right, because the same Christians who discipled him were leading that congregation.

Paul then also lists some others who it seems made the trip with Aquilla nd Priscilla to help them.  Paul greets Epaenetus who was the first convert of Asia (probably speaking of the Roman province called Asia which was a small part of Turkey (see the portion highlighted in red in the map below), 

We have no way to know who the "Mary" is that Paul mentions here because Mary was the most common female name for Jewish women at that time.  Apparently there weren't as many women named Mary in the church in Rome though because it seems like Paul intended for them to know exactly who he was talking about by only using her first name.

Paul then asks the church to greet Andronicus and Junia who Paul identifies as fellow kinsmen (probably meaning they were fellow Jews, maybe even that they were also of the tribe of Benjamin) and fellow prisoners.  Then Paul gives them high complements to say that they are well-known by the apostles and that they were some of the first Christians--saved even before Paul.  Even with this high praise from Paul, we don't really know anything about them outside of these verses.

There are many, many other names here, most of which don't appear anywhere outside this text, so I won't go through all of them.  A few will show up helping Paul in other places and a couple will show up helping other apostles in their ministries as well.  Suffice it to say that there were lots of people in this church that were important to Paul and it's probably fair to say that this church was central in Paul's ministry and not only financial support, but encouraging him and giving of their time and talents as they were able to actually assist in the ministry.  No wonder Paul was looking forward to coming and meeting all of these friends in-person.

There is a mix of people here--Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free, rich and poor, Christians that have been Christians before Paul, and those who are brand new to the faith.  This is a diverse congregation if we can call it that, but they are all united in the fundamentals.  For this reason, Paul encourages them to "greet each other with a holy kiss" (a sign of acceptance and fellowship) and to know that all the churches of Christ greet them--a reminder that they are but one part of the larger Body of Christ.